Each parent had left a $500 inheritance – the father for Link, and the mother for Booth. Both parents had deserted their sons – first the father, then the mother (when the boys were 13 and 10 respectively). To distract themselves, the brothers engage in a game of three-card monte, with Link dealing expertly.Īs they play, devastating family secrets are revealed. and Gracie (due at 8 p.m.) still hasn’t arrived. Booth is too preoccupied to empathize – it’s 2 a.m. On the night of the dinner, Link arrives on the scene to announce that he’s been fired from his job and replaced with a wax dummy. Corey Hawkinsįrom there on, the play plunges into a dangerous downward spiral. Booth plans to dress up and invite his girlfriend Gracie (also an off-stage character) to dinner, and he manages to steal china, silver, and champagne for that occasion as well. In a darkly comedic scene, Booth enters his dingy dwelling after a stealing binge, and strips himself of two new suits, ties, shirts, and shoes which he and his brother can wear. One scene after another raises hopes that are soon dashed. In return, Link (an expert three-card-monte player) offers to train his hopeful brother. He’s just been evicted by his (off-stage) wife, Cookie, and has moved in with his brother temporarily. Lincoln (aka “Link”) works as an impersonator of Abraham Lincoln in a penny arcade, where daily he dons a costume (which he must pay for himself), puts on white face, and gets “shot” by eager customers.
Booth (unemployed) is a petty thief who stays at home and practices tricks, longing to become a three-card-monte street scammer. In six lacerating scenes, spanning several days, we find these two young Black brothers in desperate financial straits. (Their father named them “as a joke,” Link explains to his younger brother).
These brothers live in a squalid one-room apartment in an unnamed city (presumably New York), and from the moment you hear their names – Lincoln and Booth – you know there’s trouble ahead. Athol Fugard dramatized it in The Blood Knot – so did Eugene O’Neill in Long Days’ Journey into Night, Arthur Miller in Death of a Salesman, and Sam Shepard in True West, to mention a few among many.Īctually, Parks’ brothers are closer to the Romulus and Remus story – namely, of two brothers orphaned, abandoned and adrift in a hostile world. The story of two brothers – emanating from Cain and Abel in the Bible – has been a favorite among playwrights. Topdog|Underdog, the devastating 2002 Pulitzer-prize-winning American tragedy by Suzan Lori Parks, is getting an electrifying revival, featuring two performances that will surely be praised as among the most exciting of the current season. Brace yourself for shock waves at the Golden Theatre on Broadway!
0 kommentar(er)
